Delivering Milk for Delmar

 

In Memorium Alan Austin

 

I learned just the other day of the death of my brother-in-law Alan Austin. He was married to my sister Ruthanne, and they had three children before they divorced, my nieces and nephews.

He was at least three years older than I.  We went to the same high school and worked together at Western Electric in Lee’s Summit, Missouri before Uncle Sam interrupted my promising industrial career with a stint in the US Army.

Long before then, in an effort to provide an income for My sister’s family, The Old Man (Delmar O. Kauffman) decided that Alan should learn the milk delivery business.  The OM provided the truck and the contacts at Meyer’s Dairy and also provided me to show Alan the ropes.  Even at the tender age of 15 I was an experienced milkman.  The year was 1961 and Alan must have graduated in 1960.  

Now, working for the OM did have certain distinct advantages, but they were, in truth, few and far between.  You could stop at various coffee shops on the route and get coffee and a sweet roll and the OM would pay.  Stop, but only once, I may add.  They were greatly outranked by the disadvantages.  Firstly, my labor was not seen as a negotiable quality.  The pay was poor.  The working conditions were second-class. The early start was at a soul-destroying 0:500.  Finish time was when you finished, say about 14:00.   My task was to turn Alan into a cracker-jack milkman on a shoestring budget and in record time.  

Nevertheless, I attacked the job with my usual gusto.  At my young age, I did feel a certain pride in being selected for this responsible position.  After all, I loved my sister and I thought that Alan was an all-right guy.  I vowed to do my best.  

I was hampered by macro-economic factors of which  I was just too young and too disinterested to take any notice of.

“Recession of 1960-1961 (April 1960 to February 1961)

The 10-month recession saw the GDP drop by nearly 2% and unemployment peaked at 6.9%, while President John F. Kennedy spurred a rebound in 1961 with stimulus spending that included tax cuts and expanded unemployment and Social Security benefits.”

Perhaps this was not the most auspicious moment to start a new career (new, at least for Alan).

On the plus side, folks needed basic commodities like milk and in those days (I know this is hard to believe, you'll just have to take my word for it) most folks had their milk delivered by conscientious and hard-working men like me, the OM and Alan.

I believe home milk deliveries are now almost non-existent.

What Happened to The Milkman?

So why did home milk delivery start to decline?

There were also a few other factors: mainly, refrigeration and grocery stores.

By the 1930s and 1940s, almost every home had a refrigerator. Fridges replaced iceboxes- the first step in the decline of milk delivery.

The invention of refrigeration meant that people didn’t need milk delivered to their homes as often because they could keep it cold on their own.

It’s easy to see how home milk delivery went into decline. So why is it making a comeback now?

In a world where many things are processed and imported by big corporations, more people are becoming sceptical about where their food comes from. People have begun to focus more on buying local food.

One of the benefits of having milk delivered to your door is the comfort of knowing exactly where your milk is coming from.

You’re supporting your local dairy farmer, a valued community member just like you. When you spend money on local businesses, that money gets put back into your local economy instead of going to an out-of-state or out-of-country conglomerate.

Your milk hasn’t been sitting on a grocery store shelf for who knows how long. When you have milk delivered, it can go from the cow to your doorstep in as little as 24 hours!

 

What is for sure, there are now no milk deliveries in Kansas City or surrounding suburbs.

Damn, good old google has proved me wrong:

Shatto Home Delivery

Whether it is the simple fact that you have fresh products on your porch weekly, or it is the excitement that is gained when the kids wake in the morning and rush to get the fresh milk from the porch box, we are certain you will enjoy bringing the Milkman to your home.

 I regret that I don't know anyone who has milk delivered.

I seriously digress!

Let’s get back to 1961 and my efforts to see my brother-in-law prosper in the home milk delivery business.

A word about the home-milk delivery process. First you take your milk truck to Meyer’s Dairy (on South Dodgion in Independence - the building is still there and you can clearly see the loading area) You calculate the quantity and variety of milk or dairy products you require for the day’s round.  You fill out the paper-work and load the truck. Then you go to the local Ice-house. Ice was imperative in any weather but the dead of winter.  The Ice house was just off Noland Road.  I can see it in my dreams, but I suspect it’s not there any more.  The milk had to be kept fresh or it would spoil on the customer's doorstep.  

A word about the milk truck.  The OM was not in conscience going to splash out on a brand-new fancy truck for Alan and I to deliver milk in.  No way.  He did get us a truck from somewhere, who knows where?  It was just about serviceable, but did have one glaring defect.  The power steering did not work.  Now if you have ever successfully driven a large-ish heavily laden vehicle with no power steering then I say you are either Superman or a bodybuilder.  It took a lot of effort just to negotiate straight roads.  Turning was problematic.  A whole new method had to be employed if any progress was to be made.

I say this in my defence for reasons which will soon become apparent.

Now, also in my defence, I contended that then as I do now,  the best way to learn the milk business is to deliver milk to customers. That’s how I learned and if if it was good enough for me, well it would have to be good enough for Alan.  

We came to an arrangement.  I would drive the truck and he would deliver the milk, meeting the customers and learning the important parts of the job whilst on the job.  Simples!

Well, there were a few drawbacks.  Firstly, I was only 15 and had no driver’s licence.  At that time in Missouri this was not an insurmountable obstacle.  I had been driving cars for about two years and whilst helping the OM deliver milk he used to sit me on his lap (I was a skinny kid) and let me steer whilst he did the gears and pedals.  I learned to use a column shift by sitting in the driver’s seat on the odd occasion when the OK was actually outside talking to customers (usually because they owed him money) and practising my shifting.  I was good at it.  I was supremely confident in my ability to train Alan to deliver the milk whilst I the truck.

So befell it on that day . . . I paraphrase the Canterbury Tales . . . when it all went wrong, we were somewhere in the suburbs making our way from one stop to another whilst I was trying to man-handle that beast with no power steering around a tight right-hand corner when I made a fatal error.  Well, I say fatal, but actually no-one died or was even hurt!  

I got as far to the right as I thought I safely could.  I misjudged. I can see it again in my mind’s eye.  There was a car parked on the road and some lady was in her front yard watering her plants.  I was too far over and sideswiped the car in the road. I wrenched the beast around the turn, slammed it into third and shot off up the hill.  

Alan stopped me from compounding an already crappy situation and making it  into a tragic one.  We shuttered to a halt and rolled backwards down the hill, coming to rest by the parked car.  It was a fairly new 4 door Chevy as I recall.

The lady turned off the watering hose and told us to come inside whilst she rang Meyer’s dairy to confirm that the truck was insured and to report the damage.

Her phone was, fortunately as it turned out, up a small flight of stairs, perhaps in a bedroom, so she eventually called down to us, “What’s the driver’s name?”

I said a silent prayer and looked at Alan.

He said nothing, nor did his expression change.  “He just said,  Alan Austin”.  Since the injured party could not see us, and I suspect did not notice who was driving the milk truck any way, she returned downstairs satisfied that the company’s insurance would pay.  

There was little apparent damage to the milk wagon, but the car was going to need substantial repairs to the bodywork.

I, needless to say, never told the OM or Meyer’s Dairy who was really driving.  Neither did Alan, to my knowledge. OK, tell a lie, I did tell the OM  very many years after, when no harm could befall.

I was sad to hear of his passing.  I never remember having a cross word with him.  I saw him last at another nephew’s wedding and exchanged pleasantries.

I was glad I knew him and he was part of our family.

State Cola Factory Number One

 

A lesson in real socialism

I was amused to read in the Sunday Times about Jeremy Clarkson’s conversion to socialism. Amused, shocked and perplexed might be a better descriptor.

Our Jeremy is probably best known as a critic of government, any government and an undying opponent of any attempt to limit the individual’s choice as to how they wish to screw up their life.

This seemingly illogical conversion is all to do with his more publicised and perhaps better known conversion to the fraught life of an Oxfordshire gentleman farmer.

The bee in his bonnet this week is the continuing drama surrounding cladding on buildings - in the wake of the Grenville disaster. Clakson owns a flat in London and - guess what? It’s covered in cladding. Not the good stuff either. His insurers want to up his cost from £6 000 to £80 000 a year. Not surprisingly he’s about as happy as a badger sitting securely in a sett on his farm which sees the hose pipe snaking down bringing his demise.

What’s to be done? Take off the cladding? Cost £400 000. Bit of a non-starter.

Leave it to Jeremy to neatly sum up the predicament he (and many others) are in. “There’s a technical term for what we are. And, it’s fu**ed.

Fortunately, like most of his rants this one has a solution.

Jeremy proposes that “the government should start a state-run alternative for the thousands of people who are in the same boat as me.” But, what if the government says the risk is too great even for the government to step in and insure. (Yeah! Right - this is the government who has spent billions bailing out banks and buying shitty Covid-gear!)

Jeremy says in that event the government should pay to have the cladding removed.

There’s a pattern here in case you missed it.

Basically anyone but the owners of the affected flats should pay - says our Jeremy.

Were it not for the fact that Jeremy has a long record of moaning about the government getting involved in what is a private business - insurance companies, many reading his article might be taken in by the very real injustices he exposes. They may even support his plan for the government to do the nice thing and help him out.

Fat chance! These are the same guys who are currently baulking at paying a few quid to maintain Covid tests for the general public.

The whole thing smacks of socialism.

No other word in the English language is guaranteed to bring on a attack of apocalyptic proportions to Tory suburbia. The idea that socialism is to be used to solve problems, even problems brought down on the heads of unsuspecting citizens like Clarkson is just too awful to contemplate, otherwise implement.

Briefly socialism is: “a political and economic theory of social organization which advocates that the means of production, distribution, and exchange should be owned or regulated by the community as a whole.” Trust me, that’s what google says, so it must be right.

Sounds horrifying, doesn’t it? Even if Clarkson is in favour, it must be terrible.

When I taught Animal Farm to 15 year old’s, I always used cola as an example of how socialism might work in the real world

Now some people like Coca Cola, some like Pepsi Cola and some like other brands of Cola.

Each company making cola drinks owns the means of production, distribution, and exchange of their product.

Not only that, but each company spends in one year (even one week even) the amount equal to the total budget of a medium sized African nation trying to increase its market share by even the infinitesimal amount. This money does not improve their product, nor does it benefit the nation in any way (except for swelling the coffers of the advertising industry).

So, I postulated, why not simply form the state cola factory number one to pool the resources of Coca-Cola, Pepsi and others to make all the cola and use the previously wasted advertising budgets to fund new hospitals (state hospital number one), new schools (state school number one) and other worthy enterprises.

I know I will be accused of brain-washing young, easily impressed children, but, in my defence I can only say that all these newly recruited socialists, after reading Animal Farm and seeing how socialism might work in practice, were soon un-brainwashed. Indeed a plea that what we need is more public-spirited pigs fell on stony ground and deaf ears.

It is amazing to hear people, who ought to know better (like say Trumpie, or Bo-Jo) railing against socialism. They happily practise it whenever it suits their purposes.

"Neither Biden nor Trump are socialists in this robust sense. However, in common parlance, socialism has come to mean an expansive economic role for the government via federal spending on the one hand, and industry mandates and regulations on the other. By this definition, Cato Institute's Scott Lincicome tells me, both candidates are socialists, just different versions.

Neither has any compunctions about using massive deficit-spending to boost economic growth. Neither is averse to picking economic winners and losers by helping industries they favor and crippling those they don't via regulations and mandates. Trump, Lincicome notes, has been quite adept at using Uncle Sam to slam industries that hurt his America First agenda — and boost those that help it. Biden, meanwhile, is a typical Democrat who wants to use Big Government to tax rich companies and individuals and pursue a redistributive liberal agenda.

In an interview that aired on Wednesday, Former US President Donald Trump said Boris Johnson had become increasingly socialist, adding that he was "not sure that people are loving it." Mr Trump was mainly referring to Mr Johnson's environmental policies. This comes just a month after world leaders met in Glasgow as part of a last-ditch effort to keep the target of limiting global warming to 1.5C alive."

There are many more examples. Just open your eyes and look for them.

Most of us are living in what is best described as democratic-socialist countries and are governed in that way.

It’s only the pejorations of dodgy leaders that make is so tragic

Chiefs EoS 2021-2

 

Oh, woe is me!

Can we say enough about how the Chiefs blew it? No. The Super Bowl trip was booked and paid for and then in a half of unprecedented sorrow and error it all went up in smoke.

Wisdom says that the offence suddenly collapsed and lost the game.

Not so. I remind all that it’s defence that wins games, and if anyone had cared to look at the signs an average at best defence have been there for some time.

To recap, at half-time the Chiefs led 21 to 3. And, they completely screwed up the last possession in an uncharacteristically poor way. Andy Reid has to accept responsibility for that. The defence simply could not protect an 18 point lead. End of story.

Just a week ago we were marvelling at the 13 seconds of magic that did for the Bills. We came to believe that Mahomes' magic could overcome all and everything.

As fans, we have gotten used to Mahomes and the offence bailing us out when the defence really isn’t that good. Chris Jones had no sacks and Melvin Ingram one. Joe Burrow was occasionally under some pressure, but they could not complete the job. The other men on the line contributed very little.

Bottom line: the defence lost the game.

Where do we go from here?

Last season it was the O-line that led to the embarrassment against the Bucs, so now we flip to the defence. Is this unusual? No. There are 32 teams trying to win the Super Bowl each season, and 31 of them are going to be disappointed at the end. Each team will identify things they need to improve on for the next season and plan accordingly. 31 of them will not win the Super Bowl the next season. So, putting it into perspective, the Chiefs have been in the AFC Championship game four years in a row and won two of them and s Super Bowl. By most objective standards this looks like success.

For the Chief’s fans this just looks like normality. We have been spoiled.

The initial reaction from Veach was we need to address the defence - particularly the D-line. And, he’s probably correct. Nadi and the crew on the inside did very little against the Bengals. Melvin Ingram is a stop-gap and although he did quite well is ready to move on. The bit-part back-up’s like Dana did a bit but not much. Are there players on the roster who could step up? Maybe. More likely it’s time to use some draft picks and free agency to revamp the squad. What about Spags? Jury is out. Andy Reid must be very disappointed that they could not protect a good lead in the most important game of the season. Maybe it’s time to move on?

One of the thing is certain, we'll be rooting for the Rams at the weekend.. Not in a surly fashion, but simply to embarrass the Chiefs defence. I expect they are feeling down in the mouth, as well they should.

Like most fans we wish both teams well and hope for a good game. There's always next year for the rest of us, but chiefs fans know that this is a real opportunity missed. Chiefs v Rams is a Chiefs win, almost every time.

News has it that there again is no coaching job for Eric Bieniemy. This is sad, but may work to the Chief’s advantage. I’ve often wondered if he is Andy Reid’s replacement, or at least pencilled in for that one. There is no doubt that he is a top offensive co-ordinator.

In other news, Mahomes seems to be taking all the blame for the loss to the Bengals. I repeat, it’s the coaches and the defence who should be in the firing line.

Half Dreaming Edit Two

I'm half asleep or maybe half dreaming

A fragment, sometimes a little more

Of a remarkable poem hoves into view 

But, before I can rouse myself 

It disappears into misty reverie 

And the moment is lost

Only the poignant memory remains. 

In that moment all things 

Become possible or perhaps not quite so ridiculous 

We swirl towards the black hole at the center of our universe 

Enmeshed in ancient memories of 

Bandy legs and coarser whiskers 

About the fire, eyes moist and gleaming 

While the little ones drool expectantly 

And the rat fat sizzles in the fire 

As wreaths of pungent smoke spiral to the zenith 

Low growls from a wolf-like companion 

Help to congeal the clan and all things become possible

As another day dawns

 

Carbon Units Infesting This Planet

 

I’m sure there are folks out there trolling the internet for items about Star Trek. They’re called Trekkies. And the title of this post is a direct quotation from Star Trek - The Motion Picture.  So, it’s reasonable to expect that they may find this post and have a look. They will be disappointed. I apologise to them if they feel that I have tricked them into looking at my blog instead of interesting facts about Star Trek.  It is not my intention to trick anyone.  

This post is about us - the carbon units currently infesting this planet.  We’ve been infesting it for quite some time now, and if reports are to be believed we may not be infesting for much longer.  Let’s face it: the end of the world is a popular topic in fiction, films and documentaries.  Imagining the end of the world or of civilization is a growth industry.  Bad news still sells newspapers.  

Why should this be so? Sorry it comes with the territory. In historical terms it's pure hubris. Homo sapiens stands head and shoulders above other species as the pinnacle of evolution. And, unless you are a religious person this is simply the result of the march of evolution. But, evolution has no end product. And however much you may wish it wasn't so we are simply the evolutionary result of many chance encounters. We are in the box without knowing so and have no idea how to imagine any other reality outside the box.  We are prisoners of this planet and this reality.

We are, if the commentariat is to be believed, at a crossroads on this planet. The resources required to keep our species going forward are either too difficult to maintain or too depleted to enable us to go forward, as we have unerringly done for the last few thousand years. I submit that voluntarily going back to some sort of sustainable pre-industrial utopia is simply not an option. 

Now, it may well be that Micawber-like something will just turn up. Possible but increasingly unlikely in my view. Society has become so dependent on technologies that the average Joe doesn't really understand much about how things work.  He just doesn't need to. 

Think I'm joking? In the dim and distant past I taught science. I loved a lesson where I asked 12 year olds to explain how some mundane and common items in the home actually worked. A light bulb or a telephone or a heating system could they explain, even briefly, how they work? Some of the answers were very entertaining. Mostly they fell back on you just flip the switch. That was the extent of their knowledge and engagement with the modern world. And, it was not necessarily their fault.  To the average Joe things just work until they don’t and then you get somebody else to make it work again.  

Think we could turn the clock back and become subsistence farmers again? Get real. 

We either find some way to share the resources or our stay here may be much shorter than we either think or wish. 

Which neatly brings me to my dream, or should I say my nightmare. Essentially we comfort ourselves with the knowledge that though as individuals we are mortal, as a species we are immortal. We go on and on and on for as far as we can imagine. All our hopes and the remorseless march of the selfish gene populate our future. 

Out in the cosmos there are problems. Despite efforts lasting a long time in human terms we are still alone and may continue to be on and on and on. There are lots of theories purporting to prove that out there life must be really quite common. Thousands of habitable planets are just waiting for contact. But, there is a chilling alternative. Habitable planets and even life itself may be as grains of sand on every beach on Earth. Intelligent life could even be common, as grains of sand in a wheelbarrow. Time and the sustainability of civilisations could be the controlling feature. Many civilizations may have existed, flourished and died before the capacity we have of detecting them has become available.  

Septics will note here that what I’m describing is not new.  Ancient Aliens visiting us is not a new idea.  What is new is that they may have thought us so primitive as to not be worthy of another visit and before it occurred to them to look us up they themselves fell victim to what I’ve described.  Overpopulated, running out of essential resources and unable to sufficiently master the technology necessary to avoid an asteroid taking them out, or some new virulent disease plunging their civilization back into the Dark Ages; they just ran out of time for a return visit.  The fourth dimension - time may be the controlling feature here, not some complicated algorithm involving mathematical probabilities.   They may have just run out of time as we may before the cosmic forces align at precisely the right moment.

The comfort of religion or philosophy only works if we can be assured that we will be noticed and remembered.  Cast ahead to a future where the Earth is just an uninteresting looking  rock orbiting a nondescript star and a passing space ship just goes cheerfully on its way not realising that a complex carbon-based civilisation once was here but destroyed the Earth.

We leave no trace. We leave no marker.  We are truly alone in the cosmos separated not so much by space as by time.  Our immortality is gone in a flicker of space-time.  

That, I contend, is a nightmare truly worthy of note.

Chief's Prospects 2021

 Chiefs Prospects 2021-22 - run it back mark two

Well if a week is a long time in politics then six months is a very long time to shake off the shellacking that the Chiefs suffered at the hands of the Buccaneers in Super Bowl 51.  That particular bad taste will take some time to go away.  And, quite rightly so.  We got murdered.

We move on to the next season with the cut down to the 53 man roster to be made today. 

One thing is certain, the O-line will be very, very different on opening day - very different from the Super Bowl and very different from last season’s opener.  According to reliable reports, after the Super Bowl Brett Vietch, the GM, told Patrick Mahomes that the team would fix the O-line, and fix it they have,  The season’s opener may well feature two rookies and some big-name signings who will revitalise the ruin game and keep St Patrick from getting murdered while running for his life from what was a good, but not spectacularly good Buccaneers defense.

Much has been made of the Bucs decision to bring back all their Super Bowl starters. I much prefer the Chiefs strategy. Keep your core of great players, add some excellent experienced lineman,,, both on offense and defence and use your draft picks wisely, mostly on defense. Let's not forget that the opposition in February scored more than 30 points. Shoring up the defense may be the most important outcome of the super bowl thrashing. Patrick Mahomes is on record as predicting an undefeated season. Very unlikely, but that should be the goal of every team in August. In order to even get close the Chiefs will have to improve significantly in a number of areas.

OFFENSE

Quarterbacks:  Patrick Mahomes, Chad Henne, Shane Buechele

This is a tough one, believe it or not.  The Chiefs seem committed to Henne as the back-up to Mahomes, but Buechele had an excellent pre-season.  In the Covid era it may be that they decide to keep three quarterbacks.  My guess?  They will.
Roster spots left: 50

Running backs: CEH, Derrick Gore, Jerrick McKinnon, Darrel Williams. 

That’s too many.  Gore and McKinnon looked excellent in the pre-season, but Williams is the primary back-up.  I look for three of four to make the final roster and McKinnon to make the practice squad.

Fullback:  Michael Burton

Looks like the job is his, unless the team decides to go with other blocking options from some other multi-skilled players.  My guess - he gets a practice squad place only.
Roster spots left 50

Wide Receivers:

Gehrig Dieter, Daurice Fountain, Mecole Hardman, Tyreek Hill, Marcus Kemp, Cornell Powell, Byron Pringle, Demarcus Robinson, A.N. Others
My guess, Chiefs keep only 7 wide-outs and Powell is the odd man out

Roster spots left:  43

0-LINE:

Allegretti, Blythe, Brown, LDT, Humphrey, Long, Niang, Smith, Thuney, Williams

My guess, they can keep only eight:  LDT gets traded, Allegretti and Williams go. 
That’s seven with Long to come back from injury they may decide to keep eight so, Williams may get in.  Allegretti could make the team

Roster Spots:  35

Tight Ends:  Travis Kelce, Blake Bell, Noah Grey, Jody Fortson

One has to go and I think it’s Fortson to the practice squad
Roster spots:  32

Specialists: 

Tommy Townsend (punter) Harrison Butker (kicker) James Winchester (long snapper)

Locks  That’s 29 left

DEFENSE

D-line:  Danna, Jones, Kaindoh, Nnadi, Reed, Saunders, Ward

That’s seven with Wharton Harrris and Okafor to the practice squad (if we’re lucky)

Roster spots:  22

Linebackers:  Bolton, Cobb, Gay, Harris, Hitchens, Niemann, O’Daniel, Smith

Three have to go either cut or to the practice squad.  I’m losing: Cobb, O'Daniel and Smith

Roster Spots:  17

Corner Backs:  Baker, Fenton, Hughes, Lammons, Sneed, Ward

It’s Lammons out for me and keep five.

Roster Spots:  12

Safeties:  Mathieu, Sorenson, Thornhill, Watts

I’m guessing they keep all four

Roster Spots:  8

That’s where I finish, yes with still eight spots to fill.  The coaches will have their work cut out for them.  But, following my advice has a lot of slack in the system, but relies heavily on players clearing waivers and still leaves spots to sign players released by other clubs.

I like it!

Price of Gas and Pork

 The price of gas is a poor indicator of how well a country's economy is performing. Think I'm wrong? Check out the gas prices in Venezuela. They can't give the stuff away.

In the USA gas, or petrol as it is called in the UK, has a checkered price history. When I was first buying the stuff in Kansas City, we often had what was affectionately known as a gas war. Gas got as low as 12 cents a gallon. Happy days! But, not to last. In those days I'm fairly sure the USA was self-sufficient in gas. Before OPEC, gas was plentiful, cheap and readily available. Furthermore gas prices have always been variable from state to state. California gas prices could make you cry?! Currently it's at 4.40 a gallon. It's 2.43 in KC. In the UK, a litre (4.4 liters per gallon) is £1.25 Making a gallon of gas about 5 bucks. What is clear is that the price of gas is a poor indicator of almost anything. Yet, it is a question which concerns the American public and folks in the UK I can assure you.

Gas is a function of the price of energy in general. Your packet of Oscar Meyer bacon has gas as a function of its retail price. The farmer who raises the pig, the slaughterhouse which processes the meat, the factory that slices and packs the meat in a carbon-based container, the bacon curing process, the advertising budget of Oscar Meyer, the consumer's trip to the store to buy the bacon all are components that decide the price of Bacon. Fixing the actual reason for the recent rise in bacon prices to the mast of a particular policy or politician is whilst very probably self-satisfying to some folks and an anathema to others overall not very sane, relevant or important.

Clearly, for a variety of reasons, some good, some possibly spurious, food and gas prices are only going in one direction. This is likely to continue regardless of who is in office.

American consumers need to wake up and smell the coffee. In the UK coffee it's between 9 and 14 £ per kilo (2.2 pounds) in the USA it's about 8.50 dollars a pound- that makes it about 3 bucks more expensive in the US. Your Starbucks is going to get more expensive. Inevitable. If you are a big coffee drinker, I suggest you switch to tea!

Both the US and UK have been cheerfully living high-on-the-hog (pardon the pun)by effectively ripping off the commodity producing nations. They used to do it very nicely with gas until the advent of OPEC and the demise of Texas gold. With pork, the Chinese consumer is now mopping up any cheap pork and the US consumer is paying the price. As more Chinese eat bacon and pork, the cost to the US or UK consumer is going to go up.  It’s Economics 101.

As a result of the Biden administration's conversion to a greener energy policy, the consumer is going to continue to pick up most of the tab for the energy component of the rise in commodity prices.

BTW (an aside) A US lab today reported that they are on the verge of the Holy Grail, commercially viable nuclear fusion which will make arguments about the price of almost everything redundant. Unfortunately, this may well not happen until beyond our life-time.  Our grand or great, great grand-kids may well look back on this and wonder what all the fuss was about!

Until fusion comes on-stream the price of energy will continue to sky-rocket and we (the consumer) will bear the brunt of any price rises.  This will be true no matter where you live.  The idea that the U.S. can insulate itself from the global economy is a pipe-dream.  This was at the core one of the policies of Donald Trump.  MAGA - make America Great Again - presumes that somehow America  stopped being great at some time.  It plays to the same audience as Charles Lindberg’s tribal appeal called America First before WWII.

When the New York Times interviewed Donald Trump in March 2016, one of the reporters, David Sanger, suggested that Trump’s foreign policy could be summed up as “America First”—“a mistrust of many foreigners, both our adversaries and some of our allies, a sense that they’ve been freeloading off of us for many years.”  

“Correct. O.K.? That’s fine,” Trump responded. Sanger pressed him to be sure. “I’ll tell you—you’re getting close,” Trump said, in his typically staccato style. “Not isolationist, I’m not isolationist, but I am ‘America First.’ So, I like the expression. I’m ‘America First.’ ”

This is one factor is driving the US consumer into fits of apoplectic rage. Even with sleepy Joe onboard the focus is on the consumer and their perception of the meaning of America First in consumer affairs.. What Donald and Joe forget to tell the electorate is that at the bottom line politicians of whatever persuasion can be powerless to affect the price of either gas or bacon. They can, of course, and often do tinker around the edges by tweaking the tax or import duties on particular products. This may assuage the public for a bit and effectively kick any real decision down the road, but, and this should come as no surprise, all politicians do this all the time. After all, why take a potentially awkward decision or even worse a potentially vote-losing one when you can effectively b***s*** the public and do nothing at all.

Addendum

The withdrawal from Afghanistan has been overshadowing everything else in the news.  Neither Trump, Biden or Boris come out looking particularly well.  Joe Biden has taken a pasting, and rightly so.  People wanted out of Afghanistan, but thought that the folks organising it might have put a bit of thought and effort into it.  The UK media are blaming Joe for not seeing the demise of the Afghan army as a real possibility.  They are probably right.

 

Trump Returns?

I had an interesting email the other day praising the Accomplishments of Donald Trump while he was President.  

So, in fairness, I started to check.

Obamacare

Trump didn't repeal Obamacare — he accidentally bolstered it.  (not much of an achievement from his supporters point of view.)

Defence Spending

The move: The 2018 strategy rewired the Defense Department’s vast bureaucracy away from a focus on fighting insurgents and terrorists in the Middle East toward a long-term strategic competition with China and Russia. As a result, the military is changing how it trains personnel, which technologies it buys, and the geographic areas of the world where it prioritizes its forces.

The impact: Already it has led to a reordering of the Pentagon budget and new investments supported by a bipartisan majority in Congress, including billions of dollars to beef up the U.S. military presence in the Asia-Pacific.

The upshot: Despite differences in tone and rhetoric, this is a refocusing of the United States’ military posture that is expected to continue in the Biden administration.  (looks like a plus for Trump)

Coronavirus

Trump failed to provide workplace guidance, making safety harder for workers. (we all know what a tangle Trump got into over the virus, need we go further?)

Religion in schools

Trump boosted religious organizations in education. (may please some of his core supporters, most folks won’t even notice)

Oversight

Trump's Interior Department set a new standard for ignoring Congress.  A dangerous precedent

Cannabis

Legal marijuana spreads across most of the country.  (I suspect the country is split on this one, but who knows?  Next step - legalise heroin, thus depriving the Taliban of most of their income?)

Loan forgiveness

Trump curbed relief for defrauded students.  ????

Shell companies

Trump made it easier to prosecute financial crimes like money laundering.  A plus!

Poverty

Trump shrank the food safety net — a lot.  Can’t see how this is a plus?

Overtime pay

Millions of workers lost access to extra pay for long hours. ( Popular with whom?)

Drones

Trump imposed a near-ban on government use of Chinese drones  (Clear win for Trump, but does the public care?)

Taxes

Trump goosed the economy with tax cuts that didn't pay political dividends (open to question at the moment)

Robotcalls

Trump cracked down — mostly successfully — on unwanted calls and texts ( a good policy and clearly a win for Trump)

Climate science

Trump exiled climate scientists from Washington—literally.  The Agriculture Department went to great lengths to quietly quash scientific research conducted by its employees or funded by government dollars, in particular research about how the agriculture industry could play a critical role in combating climate change. Secretary Sonny Perdue was aggressive in reshaping USDA, most overtly by relocating many of the department’s research scientists out of Washington to the Midwest.  The Agriculture Department went to great lengths to quietly quash scientific research conducted by its employees or funded by government dollars, in particular research about how the agriculture industry could play a critical role in combating climate change. Secretary Sonny Perdue was aggressive in reshaping USDA, most overtly by relocating many of the department’s research scientists out of Washington to the Midwest.

The move: Officials refused to publicize dozens of studies that carry warnings about the effects of climate change on the agriculture sector. The department even stopped the release of a plan on how to respond to the climate change crisis.

Foreign Workers

The administration, however, said U.S. employers are abusing the work visa because they want to replace American workers with cheaper foreign labor. The administration’s most recent rules sought to limit the types of jobs foreign workers can apply for, while also requiring employers to pay them more.

The impact: Some changes — including those that narrow the definition of a "specialty occupation" and that require employers to pay foreign workers more — were expected to reduce the number of approved H-1B visa petitions by one-third. Those efforts have since been halted in court. Businesses seeking these non-immigrant worker visas also saw an increase in requests to provide more evidence in their applications and a higher rate of visa denials.

Toxic chemicals

Trump impeded regulation — even though Republicans wanted it.

Trump took a big swing at finally fixing health-care technology

Sexual harassment

Trump rescinded rules protecting workers at federal contractors

On the eve of the #MeToo era, Trump and the GOP-controlled Congress repealed transparency safeguards designed to protect hundreds of thousands of people working for companies bidding for federal contracts from sexual harassment. Business groups vehemently opposed the requirements, which they dubbed the “Blacklist Rule,” arguing that the regulation was so broadly worded that potential contractors could be barred from doing work with the government based on allegations alone.

Immigration

A big crackdown on legal immigrants

While it was no surprise to anyone who followed his 2016 presidential campaign that Trump wanted to crack down on illegal immigration at the southern border, his administration also imposed tighter restrictions on legal immigration, even of the high-skilled workers he claimed to want in the country.

The move: The Department of Homeland Security has pushed through restrictions and changes to the H-1B visa program that allows U.S. businesses to hire high-skilled foreign workers for “specialty“ jobs. Businesses rely on these workers to fill jobs they say they can’t fill with home-grown workers

Farm aid

Trump doled out billions in aid to farmers  (popular in Missouri!)

Banking

Trump rolled back rules on banks designed to prevent another financial crisis

Trump fulfilled a major GOP priority in 2018 by signing the first big bank deregulation bill since the landmark Dodd-Frank Act was enacted in 2010. It was a victory for the nation's lenders, which spent years fighting to roll back rules enacted in the wake of the 2008 Wall Street meltdown. Republicans and moderate Democrats had been working on some of the proposals well before the 2016 election, but the Trump administration played a key role in making it possible.

Housing segregation

Trump rolled back rules on racially segregated housing

Trade rules

Trump made trade a top priority, but had only mixed results

Trump prioritized trade concerns far more than any other president in recent history, pursuing a hyperactive agenda that flummoxed allies and adversaries alike. In particular, Trump shifted the United States toward a more nationalist trade policy characterized by an aggressive use of tariffs and sharp criticism of China, the European Union and the World Trade Organization.

The move: Trump abandoned the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement supported by most other Republicans and ran roughshod over the rules-based trading system to pursue his political objective of boosting U.S. industry. He imposed tariffs on more than $350 billion worth of Chinese goods and on billions of dollars’ worth of steel and aluminum imports. He struck a trade deal with China that eliminates many agricultural trade barriers but left many other serious trade issues unaddressed. He also used the threat of withdrawing from the North American Free Trade Agreement to strike a more protectionist version of the agreement with Canada and Mexico.

The impact: Trump elevated concerns about China’s trade practices and acquisition of American technology to a new level and helped usher in what many now are calling a cold war between the world’s two largest economies. He also weakened the World Trade Organization through his willingness to hamstring the group’s dispute settlement system and to unilaterally impose tariffs to punish trading partners and protect domestic industries.

The upshot: Trump leaves office with a mixed record on trade. The new U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement has groundbreaking provisions on labor enforcement and costly new rules for North American automakers. Trump fell far short on his promise to negotiate bilateral trade deals to make up for his decision to pull out of the TPP, although he did negotiate a number of partial trade deals with the EU, Japan and Brazil and borrowed heavily from the TPP in his NAFTA update.

Overall this is a mixed bag.  The idea that Donald Trump did nothing whilst in office is clearly wrong.  But, any good must be balanced with his clear mistakes.

The Bad and some downright Ugly, we have to balance the books

The beginning of the presidential candidacy of Donald Trump included statements that would have ended the campaign of any other politician. Has an announcement speech ever looked so much like a flashily produced political suicide? Did he really just call a key part of the electorate criminals and rapists?

Ever since his blunt, racially divisive debut in Trump Tower in June 2015, Trump has proven that gaffes do not singe his hide like they do the fragile and fretful politicians who tiptoe through the typical campaign for public office. Time and again, Trump poured gasoline on himself and lit a match. Time and again, pundits predicted fatal self-immolation. Instead, Trump often rode the ensuing firestorm like an Atlas rocket. His poll numbers actually went up after he insulted John McCain’s war record. What mainstream politician has ever said something like that, much less received a boost out of it? The only thing more stunning than Trump’s dismantling of campaign norms has been how consistently he has flirted with disaster.

He has insulted brown people, black people, Muslim people, Jewish people. He has insulted women. He has insulted the grieving parents of a dead soldier. He has mocked a disabled person and expressed admiration for dictators. He has ham-handedly pandered to a politically critical portion of the population by posting to social media a picture of gringo Tex-Mex captioning it, “I love hispanics!” He has suggested he could shoot somebody and not lose votes. He has openly talked about the possibility of the assassination of his opponent. Twice. And these are just the insults, not the demonstrable falsehoods.

Some examples:

1. “When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending you. They’re not sending you. They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.” June 16, 2015, announcement speech.

It helped him dispatch 16 challengers in the extended primaries of a party of which he has been an off-and-on member, and it has taken him to Monday night, to the first of three debates against Hillary Clinton—his best chance yet to get an edge in the race to become the 45th president of the United States. Amid the pre-debate speculation that he could say something at the debate that would cost him the election, it’s difficult to imagine what he could say that would do what so many other statements of his were unable to and end his campaign.

Here are 37 of his gaffes that could have been fatal—but somehow weren’t.

1. “When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending you. They’re not sending you. They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.” June 16, 2015, announcement speech.

2. “He’s not a war hero. He was a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured.” July 17, 2015, Family Leadership Summit in Iowa. Trump was referring to Senator John McCain, a former Navy pilot who was tortured during his five-and-a-half years as a POW during the Vietnam war.

3. “You could see there was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever.” August 7, 2015, CNN interview about Megyn Kelly, one of Fox News’ moderators in the first Republican debate.

4. “Well I really watch the shows. You really see a lot of great, you know, when you watch your show and all of the other shows, and you have the generals and you have certain people that you like.” August 16, 2015, interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” trying to name his foreign policy advisors.

5. “Look at that face! Would anyone vote for that? Can you imagine that, the face of our next president?!” September 9, 2015, in Rolling Stone, talking about GOP candidate Carly Fiorina.

6. “It has not been easy for me ... My father gave me a small loan of a million dollars.” October 26, 2015, on NBC’s “TODAY” show.

7. “@mygreenhippo #BenCarson is now leading in the #polls in #Iowa. Too much #Monsanto in the #corn creates issues in the brain? #Trump #GOP.” October 22, 2015, retweet by @realDonaldTrump.

8. “I want to know who are the soldiers carrying suitcases with $50 million? How stupid are we? I wouldn’t be surprised if those soldiers, if the cash didn’t get there.” October 1, 2015, speech in Keene, New Hampshire, suggesting U.S. soldiers embezzled cash intended for disbursement to officials in Iraq and Afghanistan.

9. “Now the poor guy, you ought to see this guy. ‘Ah, I don’t know what I said! I don’t remember!’” November 24, 2015, physically mocks New York Times reporter Serge Kovaleski, who has a congenital condition called arthrogryposis that affects his joints.

16. “If and when the Vatican is attacked by ISIS, which as everyone knows is ISIS’s ultimate trophy, I can promise you that the Pope would have only wished and prayed that Donald Trump would have been President because this would not have happened. … For a religious leader to question a person’s faith is disgraceful. I am proud to be a Christian and as President I will not allow Christianity to be consistently attacked and weakened, unlike what is happening now, with our current President. No leader, especially a religious leader, should have the right to question another man’s religion or faith.” February 18, 2016. Press release from the Trump campaign.

17. “Well, just so you understand, I don't know anything about David Duke, okay? I don't know anything about what you’re even talking about with white supremacy or white supremacists. So, I don't know.” February 28, 2016 on CNN, asked if he’ll disavow the endorsement of former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke.

The judge was appointed by Barack Obama, a federal judge. Frankly, he should recuse himself because he’s given us ruling after ruling after ruling, negative, negative, negative. What happens is the judge, who happens to be, we believe, Mexican, which is great. I think that’s fine.” May 27, 2016, rally in San Diego, in which he criticizes Indiana-born Judge Gonzalo Curiel, who, on the basis of his Mexican ancestry, Trump alleges cannot judge fairly in a lawsuit related to Trump University.

It’s against two NFL games. I got a letter from the NFL saying ‘This is ridiculous.’” July 30, 2016, in an interview with ABC about the presidential debate schedule. The NFL categorically denied sending such a letter.

You’re living in poverty, your schools are no good, you have no jobs, 58 percent of your youth is unemployed. What the hell do you have to lose?" August 19, 2016, at a rally in Dimondale, Michigan, explaining why African Americans should vote for him.

So we have to ask how did he overcome these seemingly fatal mistakes?  Let’s add to the list his dysfunctional personal life.  It seems almost impossible for him to win and to rermain a viable Republican candidatefor the next election.

Conclusion:  the general perception of Donald Trump is just about spot on.  He should get credit for overcoming so may obstacles to become President - most of them of his own making.  he remains a deeply unattractive character who will not be missed on the political scene.